Humour Nature

Why is it we sometimes laugh when we really shouldn't? Radar tried to find out.

Sharni Montgomery was enjoying a quiet drink with her friend Carly in a beer garden in usually peaceful Double Bay last month when the quiet buzz was shattered by loud shouting.

"My first thought was that it was just a drunken fool," Montgomery said. "But I turned around to see a vision that hasn't left me yet: three masked men, one yelling, 'Get down on the f---ing ground!' "At first, everyone thought it was just bad street theatre and continued drinking. Then one of them yelled, 'This is not a f---ing joke!' and fired a gun to ensure we took him seriously.

Carly and I dropped to the ground, clutching each other's hands and falling into the foetal position." In some ways, though, what happened next was more shocking. "Tears were rolling down my face, but, probably out of complete hysteria, [we] were both laughing uncontrollably.

"I told Carly I loved her and then started praying for my life, all the time in some sort of hysterics." Someone described only as "Jim" recently told a similar tale to London newspaper The Guardian. "In many ways it would have been better if I hadn't been one of the coffin bearers," he said, reportedly shaking his head at the memory. "There were four of us carrying the coffin, one at each corner, and just as we got into the church and everyone went quiet I just felt this laugh bubble up inside of me ... and it came out.

"As we walked slowly down the aisle, this thought just kept going around my head: I just laughed at a funeral. I don't know why but that made me laugh more. "I tried coughing to make it sound more like a sob but by the time I put the casket down I was more or less laughing out loud. It was really weird."

Uncontrollable fits of laughter are confusing and humiliating for their victims but they are not uncommon. Professor Richard Wiseman, a specialist in the psychology of humour at the University of Hertfordshire, told The Guardian that experiences such as Sharni's and Jim's could arise from the situations themselves. "It is the incongruity of a situation or an event that makes us laugh," Wiseman said. "There is usually a relatively normal situation but there is always an element which does not fit in. "So when you're at an event like a meeting which is all about formality and seriousness, if you do something or even think about something that doesn't fit into that environment, it can make you laugh. This laughter then feeds on itself because you're then doing something incongruous and that makes you laugh more."
As a practitioner of laughter meditation, Robin Graham leads sessions for groups and companies using laughter to overcome barriers. He believes that as laughter has such a beneficial effect for the body, inappropriate laughter might result from the body attempting to protect itself. "People often equate laughter with happiness, but that's not necessarily true," Graham said. "Laughter is just a physiological response to a trigger, whether that's stress, anxiety or even anger. So it's a very natural response if you're experiencing stress; the release of endorphins when you laugh counteracts that stress in your body."

Scientific research has produced a wealth of evidence that laughter helps counteract the stress hormone cortisol and even boosts the immune system. Laughter creates greater fluidity in the artery walls, which increases blood flow and provides more oxygen to the whole body, all of which adds credence to the theory that laughter is simply the body's way of ameliorating the stressful effects of situations such as funerals and important meetings.

Even before such research was available, Freud had suggested laughter was simply a way of releasing inner aggression. Although most of us would probably agree that having a laugh is one of the more pleasurable aspects of working in an office, Graham says the benefits of laughter go far beyond simple enjoyment. Often, companies that approach him want to explore what else laughter can do. "In terms of team building, motivation and conflict resolution, laughter has great potential. I think it would be beneficial in any job if you can start to incorporate some laughter into your work environment. It's a very natural thing."

The Guardian. Additional reporting by Joel Gibson and Peter Vincent.
Illustration: John Shakespeare

ARE YOU HAVING A LAUGH?

TRAUMA

Nothing better illustrates how laughter can become an unlikely reaction than cracking up during life-threatening situations. A reader who didn't want to be named remembers her sister laughing uncontrollably after surviving a terrible accident. Her car had spun and flipped in the rain on a country Victorian road and was so badly damaged that the first onlooker at the scene expected to find fatalities.

FUNERALS

Many a macho man has professed to laugh in the face of death but we mere mortals just can't help it. Radar reader Tracey Hunter remembers being in hysterics at her great-grandmother's funeral when she was 18. She was nervous anyway, then someone let out a primal howl of grief. "Me and my cousin looked at each other and just cracked up," Hunter says. "People were definitely suspicious but we were laughing so hard we started crying and getting the sniffles, so we kind of covered ourselves."

NEWSREADERS
Birds do it, bees do it ... even people on TV do it. Most news presenters get the giggles on camera and fail to hide them at some stage in their career. While at a community station in South Australia in 1988, former TV news goddess Indira Naidoo (right) lost it while reading a story about a female keeper mauled to death at a safari park. At the time, she and a fellow journalism undergraduate at the University of South Australia were sharing a presenter's desk so small that their legs were touching. "She started shaking with nerves and got the giggles and just set me off," Naidoo says. "You know how if you are touching someone and they get the giggles it makes it worse?"

DATING

David's* friendship with Miranda* was turning cheekier and flirtier by the day. As the temperature rose, they teased each other with increasingly risque jibes, but David felt on solid ground with this girl, who seemed down-to-earth. To him, this was one cool chick he wanted to know for a long time. She appreciated his honesty and humour. Then, complete disaster. During a flirtatious conversation, David went too far: "There's something I should tell you. I've got a small willie." Miranda fell about in stitches. Mortified, David never talked to her again. *Not their real names

Posted
by SMH OnlineMay 23, 2007 11:50 PM

LATEST COMMENTS

Hello ... wondering if you'd care to read about twice on 2 different Brisbane Community Radio Stations On Air? when I "lost it"? One is included in manuscript of Radio4RPH, the other happened just 2 years ago when reading news on Switch1197. Let me know if interested - or not. Flora Smith.

Posted by: Flora Smith on May 23, 2007 7:34 AM

There is also schadenfreude, which is humour and pleasure at someone else's misfortune. Usually we find it funny (although maybe slightly guiltily) because either they had it coming, or because they are 'up themselves'.

I, for one, will find it very funny if John Howard loses the next election. Hilarious if he loses his own seat. If it happens, it will be because of that other word from a foreign language, hubris. Howard should have retired already, but he thought that we loved and needed him so much, we will just keep right on electing him for as long as HE wants to stay.

Well, maybe you will find out how wrong you are, Mr Howard.

Posted by: righteous on May 23, 2007 8:09 AM

I often find myself in situations where I'm trying not to crack up in laughter. For example, talking to someone in the office about something serious & some funny thought will come into my head. It might be about that person I'm talking to or something funny I saw on TV the night before. I then try to keep a serious face but usually can't hold it & end up smiling & then try to come up with a funny explanation for my smirk. Someone once asked me "what's so funny?" & I tried to blame it on the seriousness of the topic we were discussing. Another common situation will be in meetings with several people in the room. As soon as I say something everyone looks my way & as soon as that happens I start to get the smile on my face. I'll be serious the second I open my mouth but as soon as all the attention is on me, I get the giggles. The message that I wanted to get across in the meeting is then compromised because I just want to get the attention off me. Afterwards I feel embarrassed & think that everyone must be wondering why I had a smile on my face when there wasn't anything funny.

I sometimes wonder if this behavior is some kind of problem or if I just naturally seek & focus on humor. Am I weak willed in that I cannot keep a serious face when I need to? I love watching comedy on TV or when funny situations happen around friends or work colleagues. I can laugh so much that I have tears streaming down my face & it hurts. I see most people as being too serious. It seems that women are more prone to getting the giggles, so as a male I feel a bit pathetic when I can't keep a straight face when there isn't any reason to laugh (please don't take this as a sexist remark ladies, just an observation).

Is anyone else the same as me?

Posted by: Giggles on May 23, 2007 8:49 AM

I was asked to tape a friends christening in a church a few years ago.

Everything was ok until the congrigation started to sing.

It was so out of tune and to see a bunch of people who do not freqent the house of god singing out of tune was too much to bear.

Once the singing stopped the giggleing started and I desperatley tried to keep the camera still whilst tyring to contain my laughter.

6 years later I was never asked to view the tape, i never got a thank you and the friendship deteriorated after that..........

It was inappropriate to laugh at the time but the sound of the congregation still haunts me today

x=0)

Posted by: x=0) on May 23, 2007 8:53 AM

I run a rehab program for drug offenders, part of which is conducting group education sessions. At one session I was drawing pictures of brains & neurons etc on a white board & chatting away, then turned around to see this group of hard tattooed young men, brows furrowed in concentration, with really serious epressions on their faces, some with pens poised & taking notes. I just burst out laughing & couldn't stop. I kept saying "I'm so sorry! I'm so sorry!", but that made it worse. Eventually we had to break for a cuppa while I got myself under control. Luckily they saw the funny side - and never let me forget it!

Posted by: lizzy on May 23, 2007 9:47 AM

Interesting article - keep it up.

My brother-in-law laughs at the most morbid and disturbing things...it really puzzles me. Sometimes I really question his state of mind.

On numerous occasions, he's seen REAL LIFE FOOTAGE on TV, such as horrific atrocities in war torn countries or some mob violence against individuals, and he's burst out in laughter!! I mean, what's wrong with this guy??

Does anyone know anything about this type of person? Is it a cultural thing (he's Middle Eastern)? Is it upbringing? I know he was spoilt rotten and has never been involved in violent situations himself, so maybe he's just an ignorant twisted brat!

I think Freud may have been right.

Posted by: James on May 23, 2007 10:15 AM

The above behavious is beautifully illistrated in the BBC comedy show "COUPLING" in an episode called "the giggle loop". The character Jeffrey when discribing the above behaviour stacks pint glasses on top of each other. His premise, I think is, for every giggle not released you have a build up so the next giggle becomes a laugh. But if held back the subsequent giggle will result in hysterics. And so on until you can't possible stack another empty pint galss on...

Posted by: Aunty Fan on May 23, 2007 11:01 AM

I laughed at an inappropriate moment last night with my boyfriend.

Actually, not true. But I guffawed in the middle of a serious scene during the play "Paul". Sorry, lady-next-to-me, but you looked so silly.

Posted by: Bron on May 23, 2007 12:05 PM

How about when your walking down the street and start laughing to yourself about a thought in your head. Then begin to relize you should control this laughter as those around you would probably think you are a nut watching you laugh to yourself. Must admit this has happend to me before.

Posted by: m on May 23, 2007 12:37 PM

Some years ago my mother was finally passing after a very long illness, my brother and I were trying to hail a taxi when a truck passed by and drove through a large puddle.
The resulting torrent soaked me to the skin. My brother had not a drop on him..
What can you do but laugh?
Anyhow we get to the hospital too late (never a cab when you need one)and amidst all the tears, my sister asks why I am all wet.
What can you do but laugh while trying to explain what happened.
So there was the whole family wetting themselves at my expense.
Trying laughing and genuinely crying at the saddest moment in your life...

Posted by: Charlie on May 23, 2007 2:00 PM

What I really hate is when trying to stifle laughter, a loud grunt will come out instead.

Posted by: Bron on May 23, 2007 2:47 PM

My 2 sisters and I (all girls) would often find ourselves in hysterics as children whilst we were being punished by our very strict mother.
On many occassions when our mother had as lined up to be scolded about our behaviour or actions, one of us would start with a giggle and simultaneously we would all start howling with laughter. I myself would hate laughing in these situations as it would only make my mother more mad and consequently the punishment would be more severe. I remember feeling such conflict with myself that i would literally be crying and laughing at the same time. In fact the majority of the time my mother would become so frustrated with us that she would often give us a belting (whilst we continued to laugh) and send us to our bedrooms and some 10 minutes later the laughing would finallly subside.

We are all in our thirties now and have discussed this unusual behaviour on a few occassions (with a whole lot of laughing i might add) and we all believe it was the prospect of getting in so much strife and being so scared that would kickstart the session of laughing.

Thanks for an interesting article that gave me some information about our bizare behaviour.

Posted by: Melanie on May 23, 2007 3:24 PM

Anyone who knows Sharni would be laughing uncontrollably at her laughing uncontrollably. Did she take her beer down with her?

Posted by: Michael Gibson on May 23, 2007 3:38 PM

I always get inappropriate urges while at the theatre. Either I get the giggles, or I'm seized with the impulse to run on stage and start tap-dancing or something. And I can't tap-dance.

The worst case of giggles I ever got was at Belvoir St theatre, aged about 20, watching a production of 'The Seagull', starring the likes of Cate Blanchett and Richard Roxburgh. Everyone knows how 'intimate' that damn theatre is: you're so close the actors can see the whites of your eyes. And you're sharing an uncomfortable bench with a whole row of audience members, but despite the discomfort, you have to avoid fidgeting and crossing and uncrossing your legs, because otherwise you'd probably trip up an actor, which I'm fairly sure would be a pretty dire faux pas.

Anyway, the actors were phenomenal obviously, but Chekov's not the cheeriest Russian tragedian in the world, and the relentless misery of it all was getting a bit much.

At one point, Richard Roxburgh's character picks up a taxidermed seagull. And true to Belvoir's budget constraints, this stuffed seagull was the mankiest, mangiest, patchiest varmint to ever stalk the earth. I mean this thing was like a prop out of 'Meet the Feebles'. I doubt it had eaten a hot chip in the past century and a half. Moth-eaten, flea-bitten, glassy-eyed, dusty-arsed relic.

So anyway, Richard Roxburgh grabs the critter, holds it up to the light, and exclaims, 'it's so BEAUTIFUL!!'

Well, you can imagine. I freaking lost it. But keep in mind that Richard Roxburgh and Cate Blanchett were so damn close to me they could have reached over and slapped the silly grin right off my face. So I had to have hysterics IN ABSOLUTE SILENCE. I shook. I shuddered. I went red in the face. But I didn't make a sound.

What I did do, though, was infect the ENTIRE ROW of audience members with the giggles. Soon all of us were shaking. Shuddering. Going red in the face. But none of us made a sound. This ordeal went on for at least 10 minutes, which sometimes is a long, long time. As soon as you'd control yourself. Someone ELSE would transmit a tremor through the bench and we'd all be off again. I swear to God, I was on the brink of madness for a good quarter of an hour, picturing the consequences if the twenty of us suddenly erupted in lunatic shrieks all at the same time.

It was almost as bad as the time I ended up as the SOLE audience-member at the Stables theatre: for a one-man cabaret-medley show. I mean, sweet Jesus. But that's another story.

Posted by: antoinette on May 23, 2007 4:40 PM

Antoinette, very funny, I actually started giggling reading it and would have erupted into uncontrollable laughter alongside you if I'd have been there. I would like to think that Richard would have forgiven you all.

I have often done the same thing - I start smiling when I get really nervous (which in a way is better I suppose than sweating or stuttering).

I was in court years ago (as the defendant) and the magistrate was a right cranky old fart and I was terrified. The minute I was in the box I was smiling away looking like I hadn't a care in the world. Meanwhile my knees were knocking away like castanets. I got the book thrown at me and my barrister asked me why I had kept smiling (I didn't really realise I had been doing it so blatantly at the time as I was so SHIT SCARED!)

I read somewhere years ago that when in a scary situation, back when we were much less evolved, humans would pull their lips back in a "smile" to show they were not a threat to a possible enemy. Kind of make sense, so I suppose, laughter can follow.

Posted by: Di R on May 23, 2007 5:12 PM

Top this one: a few years ago my partner & I had a very, very emotionally fragile house guest staying with us for three months. Let's call her "Jenny". Jenny had been through the wringer for many years, lurching from personal crisis to personal crisis. She was at the point where her self-esteem, her confidence, her very identity would crumble at the slightest sign of hostility or criticism.

Which made her a difficult house guest, because in addition to being fragile, she was a massive pain in the arse, with dysfunctional behaviour au go go: constant over-compensatory forced cheeriness, passive aggression, martyr tendencies, the works. We're talking three months, remember. In a small flat.

Anyway - the long & the short of it is that Jenny had to be treated with kid gloves, even though she was driving us crazy. And I mean REALLY kid gloves: we were even afraid of talking about her when she wasn't around, just in case an "atmosphere" might be created in which she felt in some way scrutinised or left out of things.

How terrible, then, that one evening when we were sitting around after dinner, enjoying a quiet spliff, the phone rang and Jenny answered it. She listened for a minute or so, went completely white, uttered a few perfunctory syllables and hung up. Then she turned to us and announced in a shellshocked, toneless voice that her mother had just committed suicide, and had been found by her father hanging from a branch in the back yard.

For a moment there was silence. And then, unbelievably, in the pure horror and tension of the situation, I started to laugh. At first I thought I was going to be able to get the better of it, or maybe disguise it as stifled sobbing, but then I turned & saw that my partner had already gone past the point of no return, and was more or less openly giggling with an appalled, helpless expression on his face. That did it. I still remember Jenny rushing from the room while we were falling off the couch with laughter, tears streaming down our faces, saying "no, Jenny... please... no... we're not laughing at you..."

God, it was awful. To her immense credit, she came around pretty quickly and didn't hold it against us. But we still felt pretty sheepish at the funeral.

Posted by: sian on May 23, 2007 5:18 PM

Oh man I'm not alone! Giggles what you said is EXACTLY like me. I think it is a nervous reaction to things we find stressful, obscure or unexpected. I get asked 'what's so funny' alot. i do think i see the funny side of life more than some, but other times it comes outta nowhere. I once gave up sugar cold turkey and the laughing (inappropriate laughing) stopped...but then crept back again over time. One guy once threatened to punch the smirk off my face - which made me smirk even more.

Posted by: mk on May 23, 2007 5:58 PM

I can't help but laugh at 'one minute silences' for ANZACS / Diggers and the like. Totally inappropriate but just so bizarre in this day and age --- it even happens in supermarkets... just too much for me

Posted by: freud on May 23, 2007 6:40 PM

Nice one, antoinette on May 23, 2007 at 4:40 PM. That story made me laugh.

Posted by: Andrew on May 23, 2007 7:14 PM

I'm afraid I always have to stifle a giggle when people use the euphemism that they've "lost" someone. The thought that always jumps into my head is "How careless".

Posted by: B on May 23, 2007 7:16 PM

I laughed reading this.

I thought of the many times I've laughed when it would seem inappropriate. Which, as stated in the article, caused me to laugh all the more. It's a delicious cycle.

Posted by: radiantpig on May 23, 2007 9:52 PM

My husband thinks I'm evil because I laugh at Funniest Home Videos. I'm not a fan of seeing pets and children get hurt through innocent mistakes, but it cracks me up when grown ups who should know better cop it thanks to their own stupidity...witness exhibit A up a ladder in a storm trying to cut a tree down...exhibit B overloading his logging truck..et cetera, et cetera.

Posted by: Bec on May 23, 2007 10:31 PM

Hello!!"??!?! whats with this new set-up, where am i, where are the people i know...
and lastly, how can i go on?

Posted by: scott` on May 24, 2007 12:39 PM

Ooh yes, this has happened to me so many times. A friend told me that their neighbour might have accidentally killed someone...I burst out laughing. My sister had a physical disorder that made her dry wretch and vomit with the smallest of bad smells, I would burst out laughing every time she was vomiting...I can be sitting on the train doing nothing,...burst out laughing,...I would be embarrassed if it wasn't so funny!